I'd love to meet some folks who ride my speed, but I can't tell - does 16-19 mph indicate ave overall speed for the entire (however many miles) ride? I am definitely closer to the 16 mph side, especially now that my rides are in the 70-100 mile range.

Out for this weekend but hope to join up one week if some less speedy folks plan to join.

So how does it work? Does someone just step up and offer to lead the ride week-by-week, or do we need one intrepid leader for all the B group rides? If it's week-by-week, I'm happy to organize a B group ride for this weekend if someone offers to pace us.

Basically, this ride is ON every weekend. It is safe to assume that, unless otherwise posted, there will be a group lead by me, Eric and some other regulars leaving from 8th and Penn SE at 8:10 for the G-town pick-up at 8:30. We'll never leave G-town before 8:30 but don't count on us being there at 8:31. Occasionally, we'll be a few minutes late from the Hill (for example, last week's ride into the headwind added a few minutes to the trip) but don't count on it. We try to be very prompt.

Posting to the forum with your speed and distance plan is always a great plan to make sure that you have company. The main group will typically average 22+ on the flats with a chase group forming at closer to 20mph. If you are slower than this, I would definitely post until we have a regular group of riders at that speed.

Liz, to your situation, it looks like you and Josh are going to be there this weekend. I would encourage the people on the other thread to start posting to this one to get the updates.

Ultimately, if we have two distinct pace groups out there, I would like to see two separate starts in the interest of safety. When the group is too large, drivers start getting crazy and doing stupid things. So if we start getting two distinct groups I would suggest the 16-19 group departs 10-15 minutes ahead of the 20+ group. That way, we can all meet up together at the BP and regroup for either the return ride or heading out further. I'm just sharing some ideas that Eric and I have discussed for this ride. We don't need to worry about this until we start getting a regular group of 16-19 mph riders.

Liz, you seem to be taking the reigns to lead the second group so if you have any questions, please feel free to message me and we'll get things going. It really only takes one motivated person to get this going and then it will basically run itself

Thanks so much, Travis, for these suggestions and this info. This is great to know. As for the B/BB rides and group, I am good on organizing and posting, but i wouldn't have the slightest clue how to lead a group or pace a group, so I shouldn't pretend! I am truly looking to be a follower. I was under the impression that this B/BB ride would be totally separate from the A/AA ride, so I just wanted to figure out how it works and provide the motivation/call for people to get this group going! If anyone is willing to actually lead the rides, I can help organize the listserve/email group if folks want that.

And most importantly... I'm in for Saturday. Most likely only going to Great Falls and heading back while trying to hold on the fast pack.

Some notes from the back of the pack last week:

- The group is doing a great job of calling out slowing/stopping/turns and signalling pot holes. Keep that up! If we do miss a pot hole, keep your line over it. Don't hit your brakes and/or swerve. You are better off taking a straight line. Braking swerving will likely only take you and others down. There were a couple of twitchy moments last week. Nothing major, just something to be aware of.

-As we rotate through the pace line, hold a steady speed, i.e., If we are riding along at 22 and you rotate into the front of the pack, don't immediately jump to 24 mph. (ahem, Wes, cough, cough ;-) It sucks taking a long pull and then getting dropped as you rotate away. If you do want to increase the speed, do it gently. And if you are that strong, just stay at the front and pull at 24 while we all suck wind on your wheel.

- If you take the hill down into Great Falls Park, you can continue down past the gatehouse, swing around the circle and then ride out. No need to stop.

It's been a great group riding so far this year. Everyone seems like they didn't lose a beat over the winter. I'm feeling fit and STILL having a hard time keeping up. Thanks for the challenge!

Thanks for all the info. It's good to be joining a group so well organized. As I mentioned, I imagine I'll be in the 16-19 group for a little while. And I've been doing 60+ on my weekend rides, so there is a good chance I will be there from the starting point. With that in mind, I'm comfortable organizing the B group. I'll reiterate though that I'm out of town this weekend and next weekend is up in the air. Should be a regular after that though.

I will be there to represent B/BB this saturday -- I'll be a the G-town pickup at 8:30 am. Hopefully there will be a couple/few other B/BB riders there. If not, I'll gladly fall way behind the A group and go at my own pace (afraid without motivation it might be more like a C/C-.)

Good to see some fresh riders coming out this week. Please, make sure that you are familiar with the route. Details are posted in the first post in this thread. When we roll up to G-town tomorrow I'll take a second and say hello and make sure the new group is comfortable with the ride/route/expectations.

I'm changing plans a little tomorrow. I think I may go longer out to Poolesville at a comfortable (Yes, comfortable) pace. Hopefully some more people are interested in joining for the longer route. I'll try to update the Poolesville route before I crash for the night.

It was great seeing so many new faces today. I hope the ride went smoothly and that we'll be seeing you and others out there more often. Ed, thanks for coming out and showing people around MacArthur.

I didn't do as good of a job of neutralizing the start to the reservoir as I had hoped. Truth is that most weeks the group takes out pretty quick from Georgetown so today was fairly representative of the ride. If there are any questions, feel free to click my user name and send me a message (after you are logged on).

For the lead group, thanks for bearing with me during my rant at the BP. I think it's important to cater to all levels of the club and I thought today was a good opportunity to do so and was frustrated when we didn't do a very good job of it. Just wanted to share my opinion. Thanks for not pushing me off my bike afterwards.